Vols' Coleman breaks collegiate record

284 days ago

Tennessee Athletics

Photo: Tennessee Athletics

UGENE, Oregon - Tennessee junior Christian Coleman set a collegiate record in the 100m and advanced to the finals in both the 100m and 200m dashes on day one of the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championship at Historic Hayward Field on Wednesday.

Coleman's time of 9.82 seconds broke Ngoni Makusha's collegiate record of 9.89. Coleman surpassed that mark by .07 seconds, which is the same amount of time between Makusha's mark and the ninth-best time in collegiate history. Coleman's mark also ranks as the best 100m time in the world during the 2017 year. The wind-legal time also ties Coleman for ninth place on the all-time world list and makes him the fourth fastest American in history, trailing only Tyson Gay, #VFL Justin Gatlin and Maurice Greene. Coleman also set a school record and a NCAA Championship record.

Coleman now ranks in the top two in collegiate history in all four sprinting events. His times of 6.45 seconds in the 60m and 20.11 in the 200m at the NCAA Indoor Championship are tied for first and second, respectively. At the NCAA East Prelims, Coleman recorded a 200m time of 19.85 which ranks as the second-fastest time in collegiate history.

Coleman also booked his spot in the 200m final as he cruised to a time of 20.21. The Atlanta native slowed up over the final steps with his place in the final secure. He will be the third time-qualifier for Friday's final.

Two Vols were competing in their event final as senior Cameron Brown and sophomore Seth Whitener took 12th and 15th in the hammer throw competition. Brown recorded a throw of 68.55m (224-11) on his second attempt, the second-best mark in school history. His throw was one inch from Whitener's school-best mark. However, the two Tennessee throwers were competing against the greatest hammer throw fields in NCAA history. By the end of the prelims, eight throwers had surpassed the 70.00m mark. In NCAA Championship history, no other hammer final has had more than five throwers cross that threshold.

Prior to this season, Wes Boudreau had held the school record at 67.84m (222-7) for the past 21 years, but Whitener and Brown have combined to surpass that mark three times this year. Whitener posted the best mark with a 68.59m (225-0) mark at the NCAA East Prelims. Brown passed the mark for the first time at the SEC Relays with a throw of 68.19m and then set a personal best in his final NCAA competition representing Tennessee today.

Junior Nathan Strother finished the 400m dash with a time of 45.53 in his lap around the track. The ninth place finish was one spot out of qualification for Friday's final. The time was the fourth-fastest of the 22 400m races that Strother has run during his Tennessee career.

The men's 4x100m relay team of Darryl Harris, Mustaqeem Williams, Malik Elion and Coleman finished in 18th place as they finished in 39.57. The team had trouble on the second exchange costing them precious time as they took sixth in their heat and failed to qualify for the final.

The men's 4x400m relay team of Williams, Ari Cogdell, Elion and Strother finished in 14th place. The foursome crossed the line in 3:06.00, which was fourth place in their heat.

The attendance for day one of the NCAA Track & Field Championship was 9,917. The Vols start day two tomorrow at 2 p.m. PT/5 p.m. ET as Stamatia Scarvelis goes for the hammer throw national championship. Cassie Wertman will compete in the shot put final and Chelsea Blaase will compete in the 10,000m final. Shania Collins will try to qualify for the final of the 200m. All the events will be shown on the ESPN family of networks.